World championship officially arrives at the Losail Circuit.
The official pre-race press conference took place at Losail in Qatar overnight, featuring seven of the sport’s premier riders alongside a host of organisers ahead of the opening 2015 MXGP World Championship round.
Seven of MXGP’s fastest factory riders joined some of the official names associated with the organisation and promotion of MXGP of Qatar, including Youthstream president Giuseppe Luongo, FIM Europe president Wolfgang Srb, FIM/CMS director Tony Skillington and the president of the QMMF Nasser Khalifa Al Attiyah, for MXGP 2015’s opening press conference
Leading the conference, Youthstream’s director of Communication and Marketing Services Marionna Leiva explained to the room of national and international media representatives and a ton of other factory riders and their teams, some of the official statistics from MXGP’s television broadcast and media service success.
Some of the topics touched before handing the word over to Nasser Khalifa Al Attiyah, who started the series of speeches, was the continuation of MXGP’s extensive television coverage on national and international television networks as well as online at www.mxgp-tv.com, and the huge rise in MXGP fans that have accumulated via social media and other media outlets.
“On behalf of the QMMF, I would like to welcome you all here to enjoy this weekend,” QMMF president Nasser Khalifa Al Attiyah said. “We hope to make a good start to the season. I would like to congratulate Youthstream on what they have achieved with their media success and we are very proud to have the first GP again. It is amazing for us.”
Youthstream president Luongo commented: “I am very happy we are here and it’s thanks to the QMMF and how hard they work that we can have such a great opening grand prix. I would also like to thank all of the teams and all of the riders involved and of course the media too, because without them we wouldn’t be here.
“I also want to say that I am proud of what we, MXGP, have achieved. We have managed to make motocross a worldwide sport. We have also managed to receive worldwide television coverage which is very important. I feel we are on the right path and that this season, MXGP 2015, will make a huge impact on the world. It will be the greatest season ever, I am sure.”
Riders in attendance included Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Antonio Cairoli, Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team’s Ryan Villopoto, Yamaha Factory Racing Yamalube’s Jeremy Van Horebeek, Team HRC’s Gautier Paulin, Red Bull IceOne Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Max Nagl, Rockstar Energy Suzuki World MXGP’s Clement Desalle and TM Racing Factory Team’s Davide Guarneri.
After the press conference all of the riders ventured out to the track where they unveiled the all-new CCTV System, a system made up of 16 CCTV cameras that cover the entire circuit.
The CCTV system is the first one in history to be installed around a motocross track and is connected to race control where the racing will be viewed on a series of monitors and allows officials the ability to assess any incidents that may occur.